[Combined Report] The Imperative to Reinvigorate U.S. Development Assistance Capabilities to Better Advance America’s National Interests

The second Gates Forum, held in December 2023 at William & Mary on the role of U.S. Development Assistance, aimed to answer a single overarching question: What concrete actions can the United States take to reimagine its approach to, and administration of, developmental assistance in an era of intensifying great power competition?

In partnership with William & Mary’s Global Research Institute (GRI) and the Gates Global Policy Center (GGPC) led by William & Mary's Chancellor and Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, this research volume was produced by AidData to accompany the Forum and assist conferee discussion. The first report, The Imperative to Reinvigorate U.S. Development Assistance Capabilities to Better Advance America’s National Interests, is a synthesis that distills insights from the following five research papers (which are also included in this volume):

1. U.S. Development Assistance: Evolving Priorities, Practices, and Lessons from the Cold War to the Present Day
2. Catalytic Partnerships: Opportunities and Challenges in Mobilizing U.S. Private Sector Resources to Scale America’s Contribution to Development Overseas
3. Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus: Successes, Failures, and Lessons from U.S. Assistance in Crisis and Conflict
4. Aid in the National Interest: How America’s Comparators Structure their Development Assistance
5. Reinvigorating U.S. Development Assistance: Alternative Models and Options

This research will be used by the GGPC to develop a final report in 2024 with recommendations for action that will seek broad support in the Administration and bipartisan support in Congress.